We're putting out is a ten-song ten-inch of ten cover songs of old hardcore bands. hey're all from the US and that's all kind of what we grew up on. That's already recorded and mostly they're bands that no one ever heard of and most of their records never made it to CD. It's pretty obscure – a couple of the bigger bands would be The Necros and Social Unrest and Stretch Marks. We're just going to put it out and we're not going to put any information on it; no credits, no song titles, no nothing – just a blank disc – so if you don't know who it is, you won't know who it is.

Nah. Someone posted it on a GDA thread. But I live in NY so I'll probably get the chance to see them do a release show in a 1,000 capacity place. The day AI came out, they did that. Too bad I didn't go.

I wish The Necros' stuff was legitimately available. If only Cory and Barry could bury the hatchet and do a re-release like Blight and The Fix. Even though I have mp3 rips I'd totally buy an all out, expanded early discography.

Hey, I'm Debby Downer. I like NOFX but I don't really follow this. It's obscure material from bands Fat Mike bets you don't know and then they're going to cover it (possibly change the sound of the song ala their other covers) and not credit the bands?

Sounds like when old guys sit around a porch and talk about how great old timey baseball was with Jiimbo Jiggins and the North Hampton Railroaders. Those were some times, I tell ya, back before those fancy bats and balls made of leather. When we played with sticks and rocks. Ol Jimbo was the best corner fielder this side of the Tescalusa!
-Dante

Also, like two years ago, some guy on here kept posting that he was about to interview fat mike, and was wondering if we had any questions for him. I've always wanted to see that fucking interview to see if he asked my question.

Was probably me. I compiled a shitload of questions and got El Hefe to answer them. He pretty much tried his best not to answer them. I tried again in 2007 to interview Fat Mike since they were coming to South Africa but was told by Fat Wreck they weren't really keen to do an interview. I got a backstage pass to their show though and met the band which was pretty cool.

You actually don't have to pay royalties to record covers. Maybe if you cover a Metallica song, but that's not the same, they would be willing to sue your ass if one of your songs contained a word they used in another song they wrote 20 years ago.

What do you mean by that? NUFAN didn't pay anything when they recorded Fairytale of New York. You think RBF pays royalties for every single cover song they record? Their last album would cost them more in royalties than in what it would cost them to record 10 brand new songs. Good Riddance did a lot of covers, and they even released an album containing all their cover songs. They wouldn't have done it if they had to pay for it. It's not as if they made a lot of money, even in their prime. Goldfinger did the same.

Are all the people who posted under this dummies? Of course you have to pay royalties when you record cover songs! The only songs you don't need to pay royalties for are songs in the public domain (mostly songs written before, oh, say the 1920's!) If a song is copywritten, you need to pay the copyright holder in order to reproduce and sell your version of it.

So Me First and the Gimme Gimmes pay thousands of dollars just to have the right to record the song + the price it costs them to record it for each album? And thousands of dollars is only if they make an album of obscure covers.

And like I said, NUFAN didn't pay to record Fairytale of New York. I remember the Pogues' guitarist saying so on their forum. Maybe it depends on the case? Because I just don't think it makes sense, because a lot of bands that don't make a lot of money often record songs by renown artists. They wouldn't do it if they had to pay for it.

No, royalty checks are sent out based on how much the album sells, with the writers of the song getting a percentage of the process. You don't cut a big check ahead of time, or way less people would record covers. There are certain unlicensed covers, and now and then people do get sued over stuff like that.

It's not really based on who the artists are. The rates are set by the publishing companies, if memory serves. So I have no idea. I think it all has to do with how many copies they sell, or maybe how many they actually print and ship. I'm not sure which.

But basically it's affordable, because, if you're gonna sell a decent amount of records, you're still getting a cut. As far as I can tell (not being a professional musician or in the record business) you just have to decide whether it's worth the time and money spent actually recording the album. There's a lot about this stuff on different websites if you're interested in it, and they could explain it a lot better than I am.

- Of course you have to pay royalties when you cover someone's song and sell it
- It is percentage based so it isn't too high a cost
- Bands like Me First have an installed fanbase because people basically already know their catalogue
- They pay a percentage on the songs they cover but the trade-off is that people cling to the facdt that they like this interpetation of a song they already know
- If Me First didn't do cover songs they would be nowhere near as popular thus justifying the cost
- And yes there is a rule that you don't have to pay the royalty if the song isn't listed on the album cover (you're not using that covered music to sell the album)

sounds like a cool idea.but as others have mentioned, why not credit the bands with the original songs, so that people can find out about them and not have them be 'your little secret'..sounds like a bit of a cock thing to do...

Wow, Fat Mike is one of those people who gloats over everyone else because they knew about bands before they were big and hate it when other people like the same bands as them. For some reasons I'm not surprised in the least. Way to up tha punx Fatty.

I've been begging NOFX to put out some hardcore for years.
Stoked to the max about this.
No doubt people will know the songs and the bands and will post lists on the internet once its been figured out.
Is there such a thing as good new hardcore worth covering?